Dirty Friendships
by one-regret-103
Summary: Sasuke and Neji get sent on a mission... Together. Will a friendship bloom from hatred, or will the animosity grow? NejiSasu friendship! For kuzon234ray, for being that amazing person they are!


**A/N: I AM SO SORRY IT HAS TAKEN ME SO LONG TO POST THIS!! THIS IS DEDICATED TO KUZON234RAY, FOR BEING MY 50****TH**** REVIEWER ON ITTLIG! Not my best, but try and enjoy…**

**Oh, and I do not, nor have ever, owned Naruto, to my immense displeasure…**

"We have to what?!" the two protégé yelled. The two normally dispassionate genin in an uproar would have had Tsunade grinning, if not for the potent aura that if she did, these two would turn on her, even if she_was _the Hokage. Pissed off she could handle; homicidal, not quite.

He tone belaying none of her thoughts, she calmly replied, pointing at the irate Uchiha, "You and Hyuga here have a C-ranked mission, that only you to can go on. We need your special abilities for it to be entirely successful. Take this," she handed them identical scrolls, detailing the mission further. "Your leaving at dawn tomorrow and I won't expect you back for about a week." _'Which will probably only be four days, tops.'_

"Now scram, I'm busy." The two were officially dismissed with that, so the shuffled out of the office. Correction: Hyuga's or Uchiha's do NOT shuffle, but didn't completely lift their feet off the ground. Neither were looking forward to the following days, that was for sure.

* * *

'_What a perfect day to start a mission,' _Sasuke thought sarcastically, sending a half-hearted glare at the drizzling sky. The Uchiha was _slightly _grumpy because his sleep was constantly interrupted by thunder, and because he was such a light sleeper, he woke at every one. So not only was he angry, by he was tired and obviously in a bad mood.

His mood did not improve when he saw the Hyuga waiting for him looking smug. He took a deep breath to calm himself and went to meet his new teammate.

The objective of the mission was to travel to a town in northern Earth Country, Akirita, and obtain a scroll from the inhabitants of the town. They weren't to let the villagers know they were shinobi, and they had to take the scroll in stealth without the villagers learning of their identities. They also had to find _where_ it was kept; it was just known that it was in the village.

"So nice of you to finally join me, Uchiha," Neji said practically radiating his smugness, and clearly trying to goad the Sharringan user into action.

Didn't quite work, because Sasuke just rolled his eyes. "Let's just get moving, yes?" It was decided they would travel like ninja's while still in the fire country, but once they left the country, they were to dress and travel as civilians. It would take them at least a day to reach the border.

Neji scoffed, but nodded. He glared at the back of the Uchiha's head. _Why did he have to be partnered with this brat?_

* * *

The two nin had stopped at midday to eat and rest, then continued at their fast pace, not stopping again until dark, at a small clearing. A few hours previous, it had begun raining again, just misting really, and it had steadily began to worsen, until an almost downpour. There were a few sporadic claps of thunder, during each the younger twitched so imperceptibly hat Neji didn't even notice.

They quickly built a small, collapsible shelter, and set up traps for enemy nin who might sneak up on the younger shinobi.

They ate their standard ration bars in silence, much like every thing else that day. Neither shinobi mined the quiet much, quite the contrary, they thrived in silence, but this silence was slightly awkward and tense.

But both were too stubborn and prideful to break the monotony of silence.

"I'll take the first watch," Neji said, not because the Uchiha was basically falling asleep already, of course not, because that would indicate that Neji cared, which he didn't. Right?

Sasuke looked up, nodded and set his sleeping bag out. He curled himself into a ball, trying to warm his numb limbs. He fell into a, thankfully, dreamless sleep.

A sleep that lasted only a half-hour, tops, because of the thunder that cracked right over head. The twitch was almost unnoticeable, but the movement caused Neji to look on curiously. Another clap, another twitch.

Sasuke prayed for the storm to end quickly and that hopefully Neji hadn't noticed. Those hopes were dashed fairly quickly when Neji spoke up after the third clap.

"Is the great Uchiha Sasuke afraid of a little thunder?" Absolute mirth and amusement laced the words. Oh yes, Neji was enjoying this, far too much.

"Shut up," Sasuke replied, angry with himself for the weakness.

In response, Neji laughed, and laughed, and laughed. This had to be the funniest thing since the time Lee got his head stuck in the armhole of his jumpsuit. Definitely funnier than that.

Lady Luck was definitely not with the lone Uchiha, as the sky seemed to mock him as well, letting loose an incredibly loud clap of thunder, and a bright flash of lightning, directly overhead.

"Your seriously afraid of thunderstorms?" Neji asked, incredulous at the almost silent whimper in response to the lightning.

Sasuke let out an aggravated breath, rolled over, and curled into himself. "Whatever."

* * *

Halfway through the night, Neji woke Sasuke with an almighty grin and went to sleep himself.

Dawn broke and the two shinobi put their weapons into their packs, along with their headbands and any other ninja paraphernalia.

Neji was still mocking the younger, eyes holding more emotion than they had in a long time. The traveling on foot was going much to slow for Sasuke, who was getting quite fed up with the elder's constant jibes.

They were hoping to reach the village by dark, or else they would have to spend another night outdoors. The raining had ended, so they could deal with another night outdoors, but they wanted to get the mission done and over with quickly.

The nin were as happy as a Hyuga and an Uchiha could get when they saw the city gates, with still a bit of sunshine. They got themselves situated in an inn and talked battle strategies. They would search for the rest of the night, sleep during the day, then depending on if they found it, will collect it the next night. They just hoped it wouldn't be too heavily guarded, because while they were both very powerful, two against a hundred were just not pretty odds.

* * *

Sasuke and Neji scoured the entire village before they found the building they were looking for. Guards at every exit (which was only two) and in the basement was a large box containing the scroll they were looking for. It was times like these Sasuke was jealous of Neji's Byakugan.

They sneaked into their room and all but fell into the beds. Its not that they were tired, no, they were just slightly not as uppity as they would be if they hadn't just spent the last seven hours looking for the scroll that was only a quarter of a mile from their hotel. They barely grunted a goodnight before the two were peacefully in dreamland.

* * *

The Konoha shinobi sneaked their way into the building, through a window open upstairs (seriously!). Silently they made their way past the guards and into the chamber that held the scroll. The room was more like an office, with papers scattered about, and the middle was the box. They looked at each other, uncertainly, at the lack of security.

Both had their bloodline activated, not noticing anything out of the ordinary, grabbed the scroll. They stood there for a moment, making sure there were no traps. Sasuke shrugged and made their way out of the building, then out of the village all together.

A mile or two outside the village, the two came to a stop, noticing some one, a lot of someones, was following them. Within seconds they were surrounded by ten Rock shinobi, one wearing a chunin vest.

"Okay boys, hand the scroll back, and we probably won't kill you," the leader of the enemy shinobi said, clearly underestimating the young men in front of him.

The two protégé barely glanced at each other before activating their bloodlines. A twitch or all four hands and four Rock shinobi fell, either a kunai or shuriken precisely hitting a vital spot.

You could say things got interesting from there. The Leaf nin stood back to back, each covering the other's blind spots and taking down four more. Only a few minor scrapes and a couple cuts sprouted in the boys' bodies, but nothing remotely fatal.

When it was just the leader left, he began to sweat. Obviously he wasn't about to back down, from these little genin, but he underestimated them yet again.

A flicker and the leaf nin were gone, only to have Neji appear right in front of him; him not knowing that was the last place he wanted to be. "Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou!" Neji said and proceeded to tap 64 different chakra points on the man's body.

Neji instinctively jumped away as the last hit was made, as a shout of, "Katon, Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" rang from overhead, showering the man in flames, leaving only smoldering ash behind.

Sasuke gave a lopsided grin, adrenaline still rushing through his system, a kind of high, and said, "Well, that was fun, wasn't it?"

Neji shook his head to hide the smile that was sure to sprout if he looked at the expressive Uchiha. Apparently the only time the Uchiha showed any happy emotion was when fighting.

"C'mon, we still need to get out of the area before backup come to help these… fools," Neji said shouldering his pack and taking off into the tree tops.

Sasuke looked fondly behind him before following the elder into the woods.

A few hours later and the shinobi came across the same clearing they had spent two nights previous, and even the rain was there for the reunion. It was, thankfully, not thundering, yet, for which Sasuke was glad.

But, alas, halfway through the night, thunder boomers began, causing Neji to be practically giddy every time the Uchiha twitched.

When morning rose, Sasuke went over to wake the sleeping Hyuga. He smirked slightly when he saw a huge spider on the elder's face, and poked the boy awake.

What followed had to have been the best few moments of the young Uchiha's life. Neji woke slowly, but when his eyes met the spider's, he let out a positively girly shriek and began to thoroughly freak.

A lot of hand waving, high pitched "Get it off! Get it off!" some serious laughter, and the Hyuga was officially bug-free.

Taking his time to compose himself, Sasuke was finally able to look Neji without bursting out again, still hearing that amazing shriek in his mind. "Your seriously afraid of spiders?"

At the murderous look sent his way by the visibly irate Hyuga, Sasuke dissolved once again into laughter, holding his cramping sides, tears streaming down his face.

"Hey, at least I am not afraid of thunder!" Neji said, abruptly stopping Sasuke's laughter. "Just wait until I tell everyone about _that_."

"You wouldn't…" Sasuke paused, thinking, as a smirk crossed his face. "You tell anyone about that and I'll tell them all about your little arachnid problem…" his smirk growing wider.

Neji was silent for a few moments before sticking his hand out. "Truce?"

Sasuke grabbed it. "Truce."

* * *

The inhabitants of Konoha were extremely confused at the change of heart for the two most promising shinobi. They leave for a mission hating each other tremendously, but came back with an uncomfortable friendship. The two were far from friendly, and things were slightly prickly if they have a disagreement, but they were obviously friends.

Imagine the outrage of a certain blonde-haired, knuckle-headed ninja at the not-quite-normal friendship between two of his friends. He felt infinitely out of things (more so that usual) when either would make a snide comment about something silly, like storms or spiders and the other would stiffen and relent.

And whenever the blonde would ask about it, he would just get a look as if he were stupid, and would be ignored.

Though nobody in the village knew about how Neji would kindly visit his "friend" on nights that it was thundering. They also didn't know that almost once a week Sasuke sneaked into the branch Hyuga house just to deal with a small spider that sneaked into the Neji's room.

During those times, neither poked fun _during_, but after… After was a whole different story…

**FIN**


End file.
